Alfred Whitney Griswold Quotes

Love is a rare herb that makes a friend even of a sworn enemy and this herb grows out of nonviolence.

My freedom from hatred - I would even claim for myself individually, my love - for those who consider themselves to be my enemies, does not make me blind to their faults.

To wrong those we hate is to add fuel to our hatred. Conversely, to treat an enemy with magnanimity is to blunt our hatred for him.

War is not the answer, because only love can conquer hate.

On a level of simple personal survival, understanding and forgiveness are crucial... whether in an intimate personal relationship or on a global level.

The practice of peace and reconciliation is one of the most vital and artistic of human actions.

By intensity of hatred, nations create in themselves the character that they imagine in their enemies. Hence it comes that all passionate conflicts result in an interchange of characteristics. We might say with truth, those who hate open a door by which their enemies enter and make their own the secret places of the heart.

Peace hath higher tests of manhood, than battle ever knew.

We demonize our enemies at our own peril.

I thank God I don't have a problem with any person. Nobody wants to have a problem with another person. I don't want it either.

I don't think we should do anything that should make the people hate the American people more.

Peace comes when you talk to the guy you most hate. And that's where the courage of a leader comes, because when you sit down with your enemy, you as a leader must already have very considerable confidence from your own constituency.

It is easy enough to be friendly to one's friends. But to befriend the one who regards himself as your enemy is the quintessence of true religion. The other is mere business.

In the practice of tolerance, one's enemy is the best teacher.

It pays to know the enemy - not least because at some time you may have the opportunity to turn him into a friend.

The motto should not be: Forgive one another; rather understand one another.

It is not enough to say we must not wage war. It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it.

We live in a world of guns, bombs and terror. To conquer hate seems a nigh-impossible task.

The strong should always permit the weak and aggrieved to talk, to bluster, and scold without taking offence; and if we had so acted, and exercised proper skill in the management of our affairs, Mexico and ourselves would, by this time, have quietly and peaceably settled all difficulties and been good friends.

Dialogue and education for peace can help free our hearts from the impulse toward intolerance and the rejection of others.

Peace is not made at the council table or by treaties, but in the hearts of men.

The real enemy can always be met and conquered, or won over. Real antagonism is based on love, a love which has not recognized itself.

Getting to the pint where the other is not the enemy is a big leap.

We'd all like to believe that perhaps people could stop killing each other.

Peace, if it ever exists, will not be based on the fear of war but on the love of peace.